Rob Smith

The Business of Running

By InnerVoice

September 9^th, 2016

I kept running because my father did.

My journey as a runner began at the age of 10. I had a teacher that would allow us to go run the track outside our classroom when we finished our schoolwork. Naturally, this became a competition amongst my friends and I, so we would rapidly finish our work, likely retaining very little, for the privilege of running around a lava rock track. That lead to me entering the annual school track meet, where I eagerly signed up for every running race I could. I ended up winning the first event that day, the 1500m. The next event was the 400m, which I lined up for with all the cockiness of an undefeated champion, and promptly had my ass handed to me. Upon finishing the 400m somewhere other than first, I threw an epic fit which landed me in the firm grip of my father, who was watching this all go down from the sidelines. He gave me a talk I will never forget, about sportsmanship and the importance of both winning and losing with respect and humility. I remember this vividly and have always kept that talk in mind throughout my adult life; both in sport and business.

I first got into running because of that track meet. But I kept running because my father did, and I wanted to spend time with him. I would run around the block with him on little 5km runs as he trained for the Island Race Series and marathons throughout the Pacific Northwest. Over time, I became that annoying kid that could run forever while chatting about everything under the sun, and not losing my breath.

I ended up meeting my wife.

Thanks to Iron Eagle I felt I was destined to become an F16 fighter pilot when I was growing up. Those that know me also know I don’t have an $18 million dollar jet in my parking garage, so that dream didn’t pan out.

Besides becoming a pilot, which was something I briefly looked into, I didn’t have a career goal. I took a few years off after I graduated high school and lived at three different ski resorts, where my only concern was bagging epic descents and partying hard. Luckily, the third resort was Whistler, where my neighbor happened to be my now wife, Becky. We spent the remainder of the following season in Whistler and then moved to Victoria where we both went back to school in Business. To this day, I find it funny how life works, and that by not going straight to university out of high school, I ended up meeting my wife.

Vancouver Running Company.

I am heavily invested in running now, both financially and personally. Over the past 18 months I have worked tireless with my wife and friends to build a running community we are proud of; the Vancouver Running Company. I feel like it’s really getting there and I am thoroughly committed to it.

Vancouver Running Company was an idea Beck and I had in early 2014. I was running a digital marketing department for a software company, and it became uninspiring and monotonous. We had always wanted to open our own business and with Beck on mat leave at the time, and me feeling uninspired and bored in my career, we began looking at various business opportunities. We briefly explored a cycling-based business but scrapped that when a number of red flags came up. At the same time we noticed that run specialty retailers had not evolved in decades and they were all doing essentially the same thing. The only real differentiation was the old school run shop that sold the same thing each season, and the niche shops that specialized in a certain type of running.

So, 6 months after our son Leighton was born, we began writing a business plan. Immediately, we saw an opportunity to create a running company that focused on our brand and the community we could create around it. We realized that other retailers hadn‘t focused on their own identity, and were instead relying on brands they worked with to get customers in the door. So, once we finished the business plan and decided to move forward, we began building our brand identity, because we knew that‘s exactly what everyone else had ignored. It took some time and we went through many iterations before landing on what you see today - a balance of clean aesthetic and Vancouver icons. From there, we knew the look and feel we wanted Vancouver Running Company to have so building everything else around it came fairly easily. It also helped that our interior design and brand teams are good friends of ours, so they understood what we wanted to achieve right away.

VRC Flight Crew.

It was very important for us to have a strong community component as a platform to give back as much as we were asking for in return. Flight Crew was born out of wanting to continue giving back, and also because the concept of a shop-based run crew was not common. In our initial research, a common comment was that people wouldn‘t go to group runs because they felt they were not fast enough, so we thought ‘what if we created a run crew that didn‘t care about pacing and instead let everyone run at their own pace?’ The half-marathon training groups and couch-to-5K programs were commonplace in the running shop world, so we didn‘t see the point in replicating that. Instead, we saw an opportunity to shed the barriers for new runners and a crew was just the way to make it happen.

As a result, there are two components to the brand, Vancouver Running Co., and VRC Flight Crew.

Flight Crew has helped us to create some amazing relationships with runners and brands, many of whom are now friends. As an example, right from day one adidas loved our concept and the idea of Flight Crew. They‘ve supported everything we‘ve done and never hesitated to get behind our community initiatives. That relationship has allowed us to create some really cool events and activations in the community. The runners that come out every week, rain or shine, is what‘s built our crew to what it is today. The long-standing runners welcome the newbies with open arms and make them feel at home right away, and I know they have Beck and my back as much as we have theirs. Before we make any major business decisions, we consider the impact it might have on Flight Crew. We really do count them among the best people we know and would not be where we are without them.

I ended up placing 11th that morning and by the afternoon I’d retired.

I went through a time of not running at all near the end of high school, and before meeting Becky. It wasn’t that I was over running; I just had a lot of interests, and running happened to be taking the back seat for a while. That’s when my mountain biking really took shape. My buddy Jonathan and I would ride for hours on end. I remember it taking me almost an hour just to pedal to the trailhead, then we’d spend hours after that riding all the trails in our area, before riding all the way back home.

As a grown adult, I have almost exclusively focused on running and cycling. I even had a stint in triathlon about three years ago. After a bad bike accident while out on a training ride, I landed in the pool as part of my rehab. I was doing laps at Kits Pool one morning, going at a snail’s pace and as close to the side as I could, when it occurred to me that I was a very experienced cyclist and runner and that maybe if I got my swimming in order I could do triathlon. So, for the next two years I trained 6 days-a-week, raced about 4-5 times per year and became the fittest I have ever been.

The first year I raced Subaru Vancouver I decided that would be my goal race for the following year as well. I analyzed finishing times of the top 10 and worked my ass off through the dark winter months because I knew that would be when I would get better while everyone else was slacking. I made Beck sit at Spanish Banks, watching my gear while I practiced transitions over and over. I knew the areas of the bike and run where I could gain and where I could go flat out. Come race day, I was well studied and ready to rock. I ended up placing 11th that morning and by the afternoon I’d retired.

I remember riding my bike home and saying to Beck, “Goal accomplished, I’m done that for now”.

“When I am absolutely nearing my limit and the thoughts of quitting enter my mind, I always think about my wife and son, and that if I quit, I have to explain why to them. I know my wife would understand, but I want my son to know that most people are capable of more than they think, and that inner fire is there, you just need to dig deeper to keep going when you think you’re done.”

you paid to do this.

When I’m at the start line I usually remind myself of the racing experience I have, and to be patient. I’ve learned that I am more patient than I thought. I was always told I was a patient person but I never realized it until I took running races seriously.

During a race I’ll find someone I know that’s near my speed and I’ll let that person do the initial work. Then I tell myself to calm down, ‘you paid to do this.’

When things get tough during a race, it’s not uncommon for me to assess those around me and see if there’s a weakness I can exploit to help my psychological state. “If I can kick just a bit quicker and drop that guy, he’s not coming back”…that kind of thing. There’s nothing more satisfying than being patient at the start of a race and laying the hammer on your competition near the end.

I love the purity of running.

When it comes to sport, there is actually not just one person that inspires me. I am truly inspired by the community around me. It takes real guts for someone to show up to a crew run of 40+ people you’ve never met – that inspires me!

I love the purity of running and where it takes you. I love the simple things about it, like the ritual of preparing for a run early the next morning. Figuring out the route of the day and anticipating that fresh coffee upon my return.